How Do you Catch a Cloud
by Scuttlebutt Inc
Summary: Fighting out of boredom is one thing, but obligation? Loyalty? Those aren't words that Hibari wants anything to do with. Takes place not long after the Varia arc but before the Millefiore arc.


Even Hibari had to admit it was a little odd. The way life went, more or less, back to routine after the struggle battles. After the rings belonged to them. He didn't particularly want the cloud ring and he didn't wear it on his finger --it got in the way of spinning his tonfa-- but it still sat heavily in his pocket along with the chain that was meant to fasten around his neck. But that too, was much too personal. Too much like accepting a contract he'd never signed in the first place.

Still, things were quiet. And it was the third time that day that he'd found himself back at the reception room on the off chance that someone stupid had wondered in and thought the place open for their use. He wouldn't say he was bored, yet...

The peace was shattered abruptly when the door suddenly slammed open and the air was filled with fluttering papers, rushing and masking the laughter from outside the door. It wasn't until the papers settled that Hibari could see a couple of the school's least intelligent bullies in the door way -- their mirthful smirks faded the moment they spotted Hibari, distracted from their victim who was now buried under a bank of white. "Shit!" one of them spat and the two thugs darted away from the reception room and down the hall.

Hibari considered following them to exact immediate revenge, however, he was certain the looming threat of immanent death under which the students would live for at least the next week was almost as satisfying and would keep them more or less under control until they crossed paths again.

In the meantime, there was still a third party upon whom some of his idle energies could be placed. Hibari pulled out his tonfa, spinning one, then the other as he crossed the room, a list of remedies to the current situation already filing through his thoughts. It would take hours to reorganize his paper work, but only minutes to relieve a good deal of pent up tension.

"Stand," he commanded, no interest in attacking an unarmed student from behind. It had little to do with honor and much more to do with wanting to see the terror on the wayward student's face.

The prefect wasn't disappointed by the terror he received when the invasive student scrambled to his feet, tossing and crunching papers as he did. And when Tsuna's brown eyes turned on him, they were wide and fearful and he clutched his hands together in front of him and dropped to a deep bow. "H-Hibari-san, I'm sorry -- it was -- an -- accident," he yelped, somehow any trace of the boy who had defeated Xanxus completely erased.

Hibari stilled momentarily, and though his tonfa didn't lower, he did raise a brow in something like surprise. "Sawada Tsunayoshi," he observed. "I was under the obviously mistaken impression that you understood this room to be strictly off limits to non-disciplinary committee members." His fingers itched to strike, but something held him back. And whatever that something was... it rankled. He didn't like hesitation, least of all in his own actions.

"I-I know," Tsuna stuttered and then dropped to his knees, grabbing at rumpled papers haphazardly, as though he would be able to gather the ridiculous stack up quickly and make an escape. "I didn't mean to..." He hesitated, hurried to grab some more papers. "They pushed me," he muttered, not wanting to admit that he was still being bullied and knowing full well that Hibari wouldn't take something so silly as an excuse for his intrusion.

HIbari frowned, rather more deeply than he normal preferred to emote and lowered one arm. "And your sword- and dynamite-wielding monkeys?" He rather hoped the other two would choose that moment to barge in and give him a proper excuse to draw blood. He watched Tsuna pick up the papers and decided to let him finish. No use interrupting him with a strike that would only send all the forms scattering again.

"Ah... Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto are still cleaning the nurse's office. Gokudera-kun got in a fight and we took him to see Shamal-hakase... and when he turned him away Gokudera-kun sort of... blew it up," Tsuna explained, his head still down as he started to make a little headway through his rambling. "Shamal-hakase was having me put these in his car...." Embarrassed, he lifted one to show Hibari exactly what he was toting -- and only then did the prefect realize that among his own scattered paperwork were printed photos of female students in various states of undress. "Medical records," Tsuna explained.

Hibari's eyes narrowed in a decidedly disinterested sort of way. "Indeed," he spoke, finally lowered his other arm, the will to fight mysteriously fading. It irritated him and so he brushed roughly past the timid boy to take a seat in the hard leather sofa beside the door. "Don't leave any of that filth here unless you want to be bitten," he scowled, drew himself back. Too much, Kyouya. Frown, yes. Scowl, no.

He was definitely bored.

"Ah..." Tsuna said, a sound of understanding as he continued to gather his stack of smut. The room fell awkwardly silent as he worked, save for the quiet rustle of papers. Finally Tsuna spoke up again and though he didn't look up from his task, there was a quiet smile in his voice. "Hibari-san... I... I wanted to thank you," he murmured.

Hibari's eyes were closed by now and he didn't bother to open them, though somehow his hand had found its way into the pocket that held that unwanted ring. "Hmm," he said, which was as close as he would get to asking 'what for?' He thought that maybe when the boy left he would take a nap. There was still 20 minutes left of the lunch period and he didn't think much of the class he was supposed to attend immediately afterward. He already knew the curriculum anyway. He'd taken the same class two years ago.

"I just mean..." Tsuna continued, his eyes glued down. He was rambling. Nervously rambling. "It means a lot to everyone -- you know -- for you... to... Dino says you might be the strongest in the group!" There was an enthusiasm in his voice that he knew he shouldn't let leak around the stoic teen but he couldn't quite help himself in the moment. "I'm just -- Well, I'm glad that you're one of us."

The ring was in his hand now, his hand outside the pocket and resting on the seat beside him. He didn't open his eyes. He knew he was the strongest. He didn't need that Cavallone's approval or Tsuna's nervous compliments. "I belong to no one," he felt obliged to correct. And the ring felt heavy, its metal just a little too warm to comfortably be touching his skin so he he lifted his hand, let the chain and its burden drop from his fingers to the hard tiled floor. "You're the Tenth now, aren't you?" One eye slit open. "My part is done." A nap definitely sounded ideal.

"What?" Tsuna looked up, blinked, hands frozen. As much as he wished it was all over, he knew it wasn't. Reborn had made that perfectly clear. And he needed Hibari. "But -- it's not that simple!" he protested before he could think to stop himself.

"Yes," Hibari smirked faintly. "It is." And it was a simple matter to roll the ring forward under his foot, leaving a shallow scratch in the wood before giving it a small but pointed kick.

The ring and chain skittered across the floor until they came to rest before Tsuna and he bowed his head again, reaching to pick up the ring, cradling it in one hand. He sagged as his fingers closed lightly around it, closing his eyes with sad resignation. Without Hibari, somehow he knew he was doomed.

There was no telling where the shot came from -- who knew where Reborn managed to hide himself. All Tsuna felt was that pressure that he'd grown so familiar with and the surge of energy and power and rage as his body hit the floor in a sprawl. An animal snarl erupted from his lips as he tore from his clothes and jumped to his feet. "Keep Hibari with my Dying Will!" he shouted as he sprinted across the room, ablaze with madness and fire that sped him to inhuman speed. Before Hibari even had time to react, a savage punch was laid to the side of his head and the prefect was knocked completely off of the couch, sending him sprawling on the hard wood floor.

His tonfa were out of reach and his head was reeling, but Hibari was not a boy to take such an affront lightly. He grit his teeth against the blood that poured from the inside of his cheek, spat on the floor and made a mental note to have Tetsuya clean it up later. He stood, hardly the worse for wear and lunged for the boy with fists bare. It should be a simple matter to reach his weapons, a step to the side, a lunge and roll and he would have them. And the Tenth would go down.

The taller boy was sadly mistaken however and an angry, wordless shout filled his ears as Tsuna lunged right back, spinning on a bare heel at the last moment to slam his knee into the soft of Hibari's stomach. In the tiny pause, he skipped back and landed a second kick, with the flat of his foot square and hard to the prefect's breastplate. "This is unacceptable!" Tsuna shouted, shaking the fist that still clutched the Cloud ring.

Hibari dropped to one knee with a pained huff of breath, one hand reaching to the floor for support as he fought to return the oxygen to his lungs. He didn't understand how it was possible for Tsuna to be so strong. He should have been able to beat him easily, Dying Will or no. When he looked up again, his eyes burned with rage, his calm evaporating as he met the steel determination in Tsuna's own gaze. "I'll bite you to death," he hissed, pushed to his feet once more.

Tsuna darted back, stepping over Hibari's dropped tonfa -- kicked one and then the other to him, easily caught. For a moment he stood back, wild eyes challenging him, squaring, mocking him that he would even pause. He clashed with the tonfa using his bare arms, an act that without the Dying Will would have likely broken both of them. "Greedy..." he growled as they pushed against one another, a brief battle of strength. Then his hands snapped for the tonfa, yanking and dragging Hibari forward. "BASTARD!" he snarled as he met that pull with his own head, his forehead connecting solidly with Hibari's.

Hibari gasped, flecks of blood staining his lips and Tsuna's shirt-front. He wouldn't cry out, not even the threat of death would force such a sound from his throat and this, this was nothing even near to death. So he choked on a breath and felt his neck wrench backward, but he twisted, spun around and broke Tsuna's hold, somehow managing to still keep his tonfa. With a quiet _shnk_, the weapons showed their spines and though his vision blurred and the bones of his forearms burned like fire, Hibari surged forward, heedless of the blood pouring from his lips and brow.

The air hissed as Tsuna dodged, skipping backward as Hibari swiped at him with the dangerous blades, back, back and across the room. The last dodge let him jump up, bare toes catching on the edge of the desk in the room. It was all the leverage he needed and he launched himself violently from the surface, connecting with such force against the other body that the tonfa were knocked again from his hands and went skittering across the room. They skidded in a tangle across the floor until Tsuna slammed his shoulders down. Wild, sightless eyes stared down at him, Tsuna's small body straddling him at the waist. It took a moment for Hibari to realize that he couldn't breathe -- that the chain that bound the ring was being stretched hard and tight against his windpipe as Tsuna stared into his face with a crazed hiss, "Mine..."

Hibari could only stare, wide-eyed and unmoving as the air was crushed from his lungs and his only means of filling them again cut off. He didn't seem to be able to move his arms, though he couldn't be certain whether it was because Tsuna's knees were pinning them to the floor or because they had both been broken with the force of the Tenth's blow. It was impossible to separate one pain from another and all he could do was stare. And choke. And wait as the black began to creep into the edges of his vision.

Quite suddenly the tightness eased, letting oxygen flood into Hibari's lungs, the chain leaving an angry, purpling welt when Tsuna yanked it away with a gasp of his own as the flame snuffed out. "Hiiieeeek---H-H-Hibari-san!?" Tsuna shrieked, sitting mostly naked on the older boy's stomach.

Hibari's frame shuddered as his body struggled to breathe and his eyes slid closed for just a moment. It took far too long to find his center once more, with every fiber of his body protesting any unnecessary thought or movement. "Get. Off," he mouthed, his voice not yet returned, but his face an angry red as the blood rushed back beneath his skin.

Instantly, Tsuna scrambled back until his back hit the desk he'd just leapt from, staring wide-eyed at the injured prefect as he clutched the ring and chain to his chest. "Are--are you okay?" he squeaked, barely managing to get his voice to appear. "I'm sorry! Should I get Shama--"

"Give me the ring," Hibari said suddenly, though his words rasped and he hadn't yet sat up. Still, his hand stretched out, reached blindly in the direction from which Tsuna's voice had come.

Tsuna's eyes widened further, though it seemed impossible. Hesitantly, he crawled forward to place the ring in Hibari's outstretched hand.

Hibari let his fingers close around the ring and its chain, still warm from Tsuna's nervous grip. "I belong to no one," he repeated, his voice coming stronger now as his lungs drew much needed air in and out, in and out. "But this is mine. And I'll do with it as I please."

Tsuna was shaking as he sat back, his knees sprawled awkwardly on either side of him. "O-okay," was all he could think to say. He paused, hesitated, then stood to pick up the tatters of his school uniform. Silently he returned and knelt beside Hibari. With a rag that used to be his shirt, he gently mopped the blood from Hibari's forehead with a trembling hand.

The prefect eyes were still closed and he wondered if it was shame that kept him from looking into the face of the Tenth. Shame at his defeat. But what surprised him more was that he thought it might have been respect. And surely that was proof enough that the lack of oxygen was affecting him. It could only have been shock that made brought the thoughts to his mind-- _Interesting... Perhaps not just a simple failure of a boy after all_. The victory against Xanxus meant little to him. It was no great feat to simply survive, he told himself. But that Tsuna had managed to bring -him-, Hibari Kyouya, to his knees... well perhaps that was worth a second glance. And indeed something strange stirred beneath his bruised breastplate as he lay there on his back and began to feel the pain of his injuries. It felt good.


End file.
